The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
UN humanitarians deplore unacceptable conditions for medical evacuations and humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza
UN humanitarians in conflict-ridden Gaza again expressed their deep discontent on Tuesday about the access llimitations imposed by the Israeli military for desperately needed aid operations. Last weekend, ambulances transporting patients in need of medical attention from the Al Amal hospital in Gaza's Khan Younis were halted for several hours by the Israeli Defense Forces, as paramedics were stripped of their clothes and other humanitarian staff detained, they said.
“The Israeli forces blocked the World Health Organization (WHO)-led convoy for many hours the moment it left the hospital. The Israeli military forced patients and staff out of ambulances and stripped all paramedics of their clothes,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) at a UN press briefing in Geneva. “Three Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) paramedics were subsequently detained, although their personal details had been shared with the Israeli forces in advance, while the rest of the convoy stayed in place for over seven hours.”
Mr. Laerke explained that the UN had not "had any information or any communication from the Israeli authorities why this clearly notified movement, which they, by the way, acknowledged that we had sent them the notification, was still detained, as I said, at least seven hours.”
One paramedic has now been released, according to OCHA, who are appealing for the immediate release of the other two, as well as all other detained health workers.
According to WHO, the 24 patients, including a pregnant woman, a mother and a newborn, had to be transferred to hospitals in Rafah as several of them required surgical intervention which could not be performed at Al Amal. Al Amal Hospital has been the epicenter of military operations in Khan Younis for nearly a month now. . Forty attacks on the hospital from 22 January to 22 February have at least 25 people and left the facilities non-functional, OCHA says.
“You can imagine being already transferred under life-threatening circumstances, not being able to move or being able to move and then being made to stand outside and having to wait for seven hours is pretty unimaginable,” said Christian Lindmeier, a spokesperson for WHO.
The WHO informed that only 12 out of 36 hospitals are “partially functioning in Gaza of which six are in the south and six in the north. However, 23 hospitals are not functioning at all." The inadequate facilitation aid delivery through Gaza means that humanitarian workers are unable to safely deliver aid both to northern Gaza and, increasingly, to parts of southern Gaza.
“No humanitarian aid has reached the North since 23 January,” noted Mr. Lindmeier. “That's over a month now, five weeks. WHO last time reached Al Shifa Hospital, for example, on 22 January. And the urgent access now of humanitarian aid is needed to avoid further preventable deaths from malnutrition and diseases.”
OCHA also raised alarms of the ineffectiveness of the current way of that goods must be brought into Gaza. “It is very complicated at the moment because there is only the opening into Gaza from the South, which means you have to traverse an entire war zone from the extreme south to the extreme north to deliver aid,” said OCHA’s spokesperson. “Whereas it would be much more logical, practical and efficient if we had border crossings directly in the north where we could just cross in and deliver aid.”
Describing Gaza as a “chaotic war zone”, Mr. Laerke added that “we acknowledge that we have tremendous difficulties distributing the aid that does get in across Gaza. That is certainly not a situation of our making. It is the war itself that creates it. On the top of our list of things that needs to happen, and there is no way around it, is a humanitarian cease fire.”
-ends-
STORY: Gaza Update OCHA-WHO
TRT: 3:21”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 27 February 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley at the United Nations Office in Geneva
- Medium shot: Speakers at the podium and journalists in Press briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesperson: “The Israeli forces blocked the WHO-led convoy for many hours the moment it left the hospital. The Israeli military forced patients and staff out of ambulances and stripped all paramedics of their clothes. Three Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics were subsequently detained, although their personal details had been shared with the Israeli forces in advance, while the rest of the convoy stayed in place for over seven hours.”
- Medium shot: Journalists in press room with speaker on screen
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesperson: “We have not had any information or any communication from the Israeli authorities why this clearly notified movement, which they, by the way, acknowledged that we had sent them the notification, was still detained, as I said, at least 7 hours.”
- Wide shot: Press briefing room with speakers at podium and journalists
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “You can imagine being already transferred under life threatening circumstances, not being able to move or being able to move and then being made to stand outside and having to wait for 7 hours is pretty unimaginable.”
- Wide shot: Journalists in press briefing listening with camerawomen filming
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO): “No humanitarian aid has reached the North since 23 January. That's over a month now, five weeks. WHO last time reached Al Shifa Hospital, for example, on 22 January. And the urgent access, just over and over again now of humanitarian aid, is needed to avoid further preventable deaths from malnutrition and diseases.”
- Medium shot: Conference staff working in control room
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesperson: “It is very complicated at the moment because there is only the opening into Gaza from the south, which means you have to traverse an entire war zone from the south, extreme south, to the extreme north to deliver aid. Whereas it would be much more logical, practical and efficient if we had border crossings directly in the north where we could just cross in and deliver aid.”
- Medium shot: Spokespersons sitting at the podium
- SOUNDBITE (English) - Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesperson: “We acknowledge that we have tremendous difficulties distributing the aid that does get in across Gaza. That is certainly not a situation of our making. It is the war itself that creates it. On the top of our list of things that needs to happen, and there is no way around it, is a humanitarian cease fire.”
- Close up: journalist listening
- Medium shot: Camerawomen filming with conference staff in the control room behind
- Close up: journalist listening
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNHCR , WHO
The past two months of intensifying Israeli bombardment in Lebanon have been the “deadliest and most devastating” in decades as communities uprooted from the front line have continued to flee across the border to Syria, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
2
1
3
Edited News | UNOG
“State of Silence”: Diego Luna brings the fight to protect the press to the UN in Geneva
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna has brought his fight to protect journalists all the way to the United Nations, in Geneva. Together with documentary director Santiago Masa, he is putting a spotlight on the silencing of investigative journalism in his country, and on the incredibly high price that many journalist have to pay in pursuit of truth.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurance told the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL , UNICEF , WHO
Lebanon: Increased violence along Blue Line and ‘horrific new normal’ for children
In southern Lebanon, peacekeepers have witnessed “shocking” destruction of villages along the Blue Line and ever-deeper Israeli ground incursions, while the situation of children across the country is becoming increasingly desperate, the UN said on Tuesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country’s energy infrastructure is on the brink and drones terrify communities on the front line, the UN’s top aid official in the country said on Friday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: ‘People are losing hope’ as aid access is refused to north, warns UNRWA
Besieged northern Gaza is a place of dead bodies lying in the streets and hospitals running out of blood packs – a situation that’s “nothing short of catastrophic”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence & Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Sudan’s displaced have endured “unimaginable suffering” in their search for shelter from the country’s ongoing war, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
‘Exceptional achievement’: Humanitarians reach over 105,000 with polio vaccine in north Gaza
Despite ongoing attacks and access challenges, humanitarians have managed to inoculate over 105,000 children in north Gaza with the second and final dose of the oral polio vaccine, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.